Don reitz pottery for sale

Reitz ranch
Don Reitz (1929 – 2014) was one of the most virtuosic throwers the field has ever seen, the foremost leader of the workshop circuit, a charismatic educator.
Donald Lester Reitz (November 7, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American ceramic artist, recognized for inspiring a reemergence of salt glaze pottery in United.

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Don Reitz

American ceramic artist (1929–2014)

Donald Lester Reitz (November 7, 1929 – March 19, 2014) was an American ceramic artist, recognized for inspiring a reemergence of salt glaze pottery in United States.^[1]^[2] He was a teacher of ceramic art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1962 until 1988. During this period, he adapted the pottery firing technique developed in the Middle Ages, which involved pouring salt into the pottery kiln during the firing stage. The method was taught in European ceramic art schools, but largely unknown in United States studio pottery.

In 1982, Reitz was in a serious car accident involving a truck and was hospitalized for several months. While recovering from his injury, he began to create a series of ceramic pieces that came to be known by a collective name, Sara Period. In 2007, Reitz suffered a heart attack and would undergo close to a dozen surgeries, including a valve replacement. He continued producing works with the help of studio assistants.

Reitz died on March 19, 2014, at the age of 84 of hea

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Don Reitz • American (1929-2014)

Platter C: 1982 • Stoneware 22" x 22" x 2-1/2"

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Gift of Leatrice S. & Melvin B. Eagle in Memory of David & Jean Shanker, 999.1

As he lay in a hospital bed waiting for a lot of broken bones to mend, Don Reitz began to think of the accident as a bad kiln firing.

“I’ve always said there is no such thing as a bad firing; it’s only bad if you don’t learn from it and turn adversity into positive energy.” With the help of his sick niece who sent “Get Well” cards with childish drawings, Don Reitz began to disassemble his life and put it back together. Reproducing her drawings in ceramic glazes his “Sara Period” pieces set his art in a new direction leading straight to Canton, Ohio.

If not for dyslexia, Reitz would have become a poet. Instead he made his living working with his hands. He was a naval salvage diver, a truck driver, a commercial fisherman and (for a very short time, we suspect) a dyslexic sign painter. Finally, he became a butcher renowned for slicing rosettes

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About

Don Reitz (1929 – 2014) was one of the most virtuosic throwers the field has ever seen, the foremost leader of the workshop circuit, a charismatic educator and man of exceptional warmth, kindness and generosity. In 1981 he was named one of the top twelve world’s greatest living potters by Ceramics Monthly readers.

Reitz earned his MFA at Alfred University in 1962, where he began experimenting with salt-glazing, a technique largely neglected by the post-World War II ceramic studio movement. Readily embracing this firing technique, Reitz quickly realized that it allowed the clay to keep its natural character, and its malleability did not obscure the creator’s hand. In a decade’s time, he was dubbed “Mr. Salt” by his peers.

He spent many years as an educator as well as a potter; he taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for more than 25 years before retiring as a professor emeritus in 1988. His extensive body of work is represented in over 50 distinguished public and private collections.

Don Reitz lived and worked in Clarkdale, Arizona. He claimed that he would